Modi-fied Plan: New Zealand PM Chris Hipkins Flew Down to Papua New Guinea Only to Meet India’s PM

Monday’s meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his New Zealand counterpart Chris Hipkins in Papua New Guinea was special for many reasons.

According to sources, Hipkins had scheduled his visit to PNG to meet United States President Joe Biden and PM Modi. When Biden cancelled his visit, there were doubts whether Hipkins would come to PNG only to meet PM Modi.

However, according to sources, Hipkins said he wanted to meet Modi and specially flew down to PNG.

PM Modi was in Papua New Guinea to host a key summit between India and 14 Pacific island countries to boost bilateral ties. The prime minister met Hipkins on the sidelines of the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC) summit. This was the first interaction between the two Prime Ministers since Hipkins assumed office in January.

“Had an excellent meeting with the New Zealand PM Chris Hipkins and discussed the full range of India-New Zealand relations. We talked about how to improve commercial and cultural linkages between our nations,” PM Modi said in a tweet on Monday.

The Third Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC) Summit held at Port Moresby on Monday, was jointly hosted with Papua New Guinea.

PM Modi co-chaired the Summit with Prime Minister James Marape of Papua New Guinea.

“Giving fresh impetus to India-New Zealand relationship. PM @narendramodi met PM @chrishipkins of New Zealand in Port Moresby. The two leaders, in what was their first interaction, discussed expanding cooperation in various sectors including trade & commerce, education, culture, sports and people-to-people ties,” the Ministry of External Affairs tweeted.

With PTI Inputs